Countdown to Lily....

To say we were excited about meeting our little girl would be quite the understatement. Even though I had a pretty perfect pregnancy, I just wanted/needed for it to be over so we could just hold her in our arms and begin this new chapter of our lives. I convinced myself that we would go early, so every day without contractions, I was hugely disappointed, and increasingly nervous about delivery.

Last picture as a family of two!

Final belly shot... I was huge!!

Contractions started at midnight on September 7th (her actual due date) and really started to pick up by about 4AM. After calling the doctor, we waited until about 9AM to head to the hospital to be checked out. The doctor told us we were only 1.5cm dilated and we could go home until the contractions picked up even more.

So excited that we would be admitted!!

Though very short lived...thumbs down to being sent home!!

After heading home, we quickly realized we shouldn't have left. Contractions became much closer together (3.5 minutes apart) and much stronger, and by 3pm we decided to head back to the hospital.

Operation Lily, take 2!

They checked me again and was still only 2cm dilated. When the doctor suggested I go home again, we refused. We decided to stay in the hospital and try some things to help me dilate more; such as taking a jacuzzi bath, bouncing on a yoga ball and taking walks. This did not help much because again at 9pm when I was checked we were only at 3cm. Again, the doctor suggested we go home and rest and when we again refused, she suggested I take morphine for the pain to help me sleep. After some much needed persuasion (we had not wanted to take any drugs before the delivery besides an epidural), we agreed and it did help us sleep for a few hours.

Erik was so helpful through every contraction!

At about midnight I had got up to go to the bathroom and noticed I was bleeding. The doctor immediately came to check on me and said we had progressed to 6cm and could be brought back to the delivery room for the epidural. I was SO excited! At that point I had been having contractions for 24 hours and could not wait for a little relief. The epidural was a dream...the pain magically dissolved away and I was able to sleep for a few more hours.

Epidurals RULE!!

Around 6AM, we found out that we were 9cm and almost ready for delivery. Another hour of rest brought us to 10cm and we were almost ready to start pushing. All of a sudden the reality of it hit me... we were about to meet our little girl!! The excitement and trepidation consumed me, but I had no time to dwell on it, we were ready to go!! Pushing was not exactly what I had pictured, it was just Erik, me and a nurse holding up my legs and pushing through the contractions. No team of doctors and nurses were rushing in and out of the room like you see on TV, it was very quiet and calm.  As soon as we started pushing, I started getting the most excruciating pain in my hip that the epidural was just not helping. I was told not to administer more of the epidural at that time because I needed to feel the contractions to push through, but I did not know how to deal with the pain I was feeling. At the same time, I began feeling nauseous and ended up getting sick a few times...basically I was falling apart. I knew I had to push through all these hurdles and focus on getting Lily out. After we had begun pushing, an emergency siren sounded in the hospital and the nurse needed to run out to the nurse's station, leaving Erik and I there alone with my legs in the air, not knowing what to do. She returned pretty quickly and we began pushing again. As we got closer, the nurse asked if I would like to watch and surprising even myself, I decided I did want to see the birth of my daughter. She went and got a big mirror and set it up so with every push, I could see her coming. Erik and I could not believe how amazing it was to watch her coming out.  It definitely gave me the motivation to keep going, as I could see the progress with every push. After about 45 minutes and very close to Lily's birth, the doctor arrived saying that she had been locked in the stairwell. When the emergency siren had gone off, the hospital went on lockdown, not allowing her access to the unit. Thank God she got there when she did because 15 more pushes and Lily was here!!